I use rgdal in R to avoid doing statistics with QGIS. But for thematic maps I find it very useful. And for nicer looking legends on maps I use Inkscape.
The true power of open source for me is, that you use many programs together to achieve a result that can beat closed source software. It is sometime more work to do so, when you aim for near perfection.
QGIS is great, but the real power horse is GDAL.
this guy maps
I use rgdal in R to avoid doing statistics with QGIS. But for thematic maps I find it very useful. And for nicer looking legends on maps I use Inkscape.
The true power of open source for me is, that you use many programs together to achieve a result that can beat closed source software. It is sometime more work to do so, when you aim for near perfection.